Fresh Lime Soda

We know we’ve been rather quiet here over the last few months. We did record an episode in early February, but what with one thing and another, it has never quite made it on to the site. If we have time, we may yet edit it together and post it, but for now, we’re afraid to say that we have decided to put Fresh Lime Soda on hold.

Steph is very busy at the moment organising Going Solo, a conference to be held in Lausanne, Switzerland on 16th May and addressing the issues surrounding freelance work and life. If you’re a freelance, or thinking of leaving your job to go solo, you should definitely take a look!

Suw is equally as frantic, having just launched a new blog, Kits and Mortar, which follows her up the learning curve as she find out how to plan and build her own green, cat-friendly house. If you’re a cat lover, or you’re into self-build or sustainability, check it out!

We’re sure that we’ll come back to Fresh Lime Soda at some point, but for now, it’s on hold. In the meantime, you can find us on our own blogs or on Twitter:

Steph:

• Climb to the Stars
• Going Solo blog
• Steph on Twitter
• Going Solo on Twitter

Suw:

• Strange Attractor
• Chocolate and Vodka
• Suw on Twitter
• Kits and Mortar on Twitter

Ah well, see, this is how it goes. You wait months for episode 8 of FLS, we publish it with a broken link to the audio file and correct it weeks later, and then, right behind it (ish), episode 9!

• FoWA recap
• surprise guest!
• back to FoWA recap: what we liked (Leisa Reichelt, Erika Hall, Thomas Vander Wal, Robin Christopherson, Tom Coates, Dick Costolo
• mislabelled talks? Suw’s, for example
• FoWA badges and the mysterious Doug Clinton (Steph’s forgotten match was Heather Champ)
• Etsy talk and lace thongs
• arts and crafts: who made my stuff? — and economics
• pottery and lace
• finding the right price for lace and consulting
• making Suw’s love of lace economically viable and Steph’s photo book project
• Lulu.com, Blurb, and wedding photographers

This isn’t getting any better, is it? Well, better late than never: Fresh Lime Soda, episode 8. (Gosh, we did this on the 3rd August…)

• video is easier and more entertaining
• what the heck is this Mornington Crescent thing? (the game on Twitter, blogged by Suw and Lloyd)
• delusions of privacy: private and public Twitter feeds; ORG-discuss mailing-list archives
• permanence of digital media (teenagers, adults, and nekkid pics!)
• “breaking down the walls between the silos of our lives”: Facebook as a business networking service?
• social network fatigue and contact groups (note, though, this feature has been announced for Facebook) since we discussed this; we need Structured Portable Social Networks
• centralizing e-mail in GMail and multiple inboxes (Suw might like Xobni)
• the psychology of e-mail: subtle differences between “inbox” and “archive” (and a sprinkle of GTD — check Merlin Mann’s Google Tech Talk about e-mail)
• what will I do tomorrow? Suw’s “campaign to get more done” and Steph’s nine to twelve
• keeping track of time whilst watching Sky News and answering e-mails

You may download the MP3 of Fresh Lime Soda, Episode 8 or listen to it using the player below. (15Mb, 44min)

Update 17.10: fixed the typo in the audio file link! (Gah, you people could have mentioned it, you know who you are. Thanks, iMorpheus.)

Each time Suw and I meet, we try to record a video episode of Fresh Lime Soda, mainly because it’s more fun than doing a podcast. This episode was shot in two sittings, (well, three if you’re going to be picky!) for reasons you will understand as soon as you start watching.

Show notes:

- in San Francisco!
- what do you do? What do you care about? Why neither of us “sell” ourselves
- what we do, what we’d like to do
- Suw cares about blogs and wikis, and digital rights
- about being a consultant and trying to define what we do without using loaded words like, er “consultant”
- work/life balance and the importance of having interests offline
- let others tag your photos
- Steph cares about teenagers and languages online (people and the internet)

Thanks, by the way, to all the people who have been giving us feedback on this show. It’s really nice to know how appreciated it is. See you soon!

Welcome to another FLS video episode filmed on Suw’s sofa and containing some goofing off. This time, though, we get down to a serious discussion — well, as serious as we ever get — about whether or not it’s better to use slides when giving a presentation. We also give our top five (or in Steph’s case, six) tips for giving talks, and Suw promises to try using slides at her next talk.

Now, we’ve decided to experiment with the new video hosting service, Viddler, because it allows for you to leave comments which are tied to a specific point of time in the video, and allows us to add time-based tags too. It also allows you to link to and embed videos starting from a particular frame, not just from the beginning. Neat!

Unfortunately, though, WordPress in all its wisdom and glory doesn’t allow us to embed the video here for your delectation. Apparently this is a “feature” that prevents malicious code from being embedded in WordPress blogs. Personally, I class anything that gets in my way as bug, and this is getting in my way like an elephant in a lift. Colour me annoyed. Still, all you have to do to enjoy our video is click on any one of the lovely links scattered liberally through this blog post!

UPDATE: Viddler now produces a special code to let you embed videos in WordPress. Fab!

Finally, after a long wait due to our joint inefficiency in getting this podcast ready for public consumption, we are proud to present episode 5 of our favourite podcast, Fresh Lime Soda, in which (this time) everything is related. (Recorded on April 25th, 2007, but don’t say it too loud — we don’t want people to know just quite how slow we are.)

Show notes:

• Dragon NaturallySpeaking: dictation speed and recognition issues
• correcting mistakes in Dragon (impromptu tutorial) — ends around 10:20
• multitasking: can dictation help you focus? (Web Worker Daily: Your Eyes Want to Multitask. Resist!)
• tinnitus is in the brain; multitasking is like visual tinnitus
• WriteRoom, choosing your interruptions
• how Think works
• multitasking and guilt - the expectation of instant availability
• how to change - think about the process not the end result
• managing interruptions: closing e-mail windows, Google notifier, e-mail notification in Adium, Twitterrific
• back to the flow state through dictating (and maybe going to the gym?)
• guilt and making time for blogging
• reclaiming your blog, and the first-draft syndrome (really shitty first draft: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott)

You may download the MP3 of Fresh Lime Soda, Episode 5 or listen to it using the player below. (12Mb, 35min)

Whilst we were both in London - Steph’s staying with Suw at the moment - we decided to have a play with our MacBooks and iMovie and do a little a video entry for your delight and delectation. OK, maybe ‘delectation’ is putting it a bit strongly. Still, we hope you enjoy watching our 20 minutes of (almost content-free) silliness as much as we enjoyed putting it together, although please do forgive us the cheesy ending. (I want it on the record that the ending was all Steph’s idea - Suw.)

Here are the show notes:

- Joi wondering if saving the internet is “doing the right thing” for him now
- being self-conscious
- The Homeless Guy
- danah boyd’s post on anti-social networks legislation
- eggs
- data packages with cellphones, pricing predictability
- going no-car (Steph’s long post around that), Mobility and Zipcar
- which side of the road do we drive, and why?
- Walk. On. The. Left.
- not wanting to talk about “brand” and “attacking niches”

You may download the iPod version (22min, 131Mb) or the higher resolution version (22min, 117Mb).

We’re very happy to tell you that for this third episode, we’ve found ourselves a name: Fresh Lime Soda. Cool and fizzy with a dash of lime. Episode 3 was recorded on March 14, 2007. Your hosts are, as always, Suw Charman and Stephanie Booth.

Show notes:

• Why “Fresh Lime Soda”?
• Twitter, killed by SXSW? We don’t agree.
• Twitter is developing around emergent behaviours. You can’t control users.
• Why Twitter is important: ambient intimacy.
• information-revolution.org: masquerading as an anti-Google grassroots effort, actually a marketing ploy, run by Profero with Yahoo! and Ask behind it.
• iDont.com anti-iPod campaign, actually a SanDisk ad. Feeling cheated.
• Anti-piracy campaigns. Downloading vs. theft.
• Business model for music needs to change. Merchandising, physical objects. Flattening-out the curve of success.
• L’Age du Peer. No digital equivalent of physical presence (Kathy Sierry SXSW MP3).
• Suw needs a Pensieve.

You may download the MP3 of Fresh Lime Soda, Episode 3 or listen to it using the player below. (14Mb, 40min)

Episode 2 of Fresh Lime Soda was recorded on February 15th, and was initially published on our blogs:

• The podcast that still doesn’t have a name, part 2 (Suw)
• The Podcast With No Name (Steph+Suw), Episode 2 (Steph)

Show notes:

• conferences: LIFT’07 and Freedom of Expression
• not everybody has the internet
• “technology overload” at LIFT’07 turned into “internet addiction”
• note-taking: computer vs. handwritten (Steph’s workshop notes)
• scanning vs. photographing written material, document management and shredding
• GTD status update (inbox zero)
• FOWA coming up and other fun London stuff
• Wedding 2.0
• technology as a way to stretch our Dunbar number
• the Wedding Industrial Complex and affordable venues
• physical words for “virtual” places
• gap between us heavy users and more casual users
• curiosity and new tools
• winning over new users
• Steph loves Facebook
• LinkedIn for business
• profile multiplication, tools need to talk to each other (holes in buckets)

Here’s the podcast, 14Mb, 34:49min: Fresh Lime Soda, episode 2.

Before this podcast had a name and a place of its own online, we - that’s Suw and Stephanie - published it on our respective blogs. Here are the original posts for episode #1, recorded January 19th, 2007:

• The podcast with no name, part 1 (Suw)
• Steph+Suw Podcast: First! (Steph)

Show notes:

• San Francisco, web geek paradise
• City sizes (see this London-SF superimposition map)
• Segways
• The cat/geek Venn diagram (Twitter error message)
• I really want a Wii
• IRC screen names
• The difficulties of pronouncing S-u-w
• When geeks name children: A unique identifier or anonymity?
• Stalkers and geo-information
• Perceptions of security
• Giving out your phone number and address, and personal boundaries
• Airport security (background…)
• Risk and expectations of risk
• Death, religion, and the medical industry
• Naming our podcast… something about blondes, apparently
• Clueless marketeering from the Fabric nightclub in London
• The repercussions of having a blog that people think is influential (even if you don’t think it is)

And here be the audio file for Fresh Lime Soda, episode 1 (39:58m).